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I've always been a romance girl. Even back in the day when I was buried in Nancy Drew books, some of my favorite parts were when she and Ned were solving mysteries together. And I think I went right from Nancy Drew in grade school to Harlequin in high school. I'm sure there were some inbetween stories in my junior high years, but I really can't put my finger on what they might have been. I know I read Laura Ingalls Wilder, but that was earlier on, at the end of grade school. Maybe Judy Blume? There certainly wasn't anything out there like Twilight or Harry Potter.
All I know is I fell in love with romance in high school when I started reading Harlequin American Romances. Looking back, they really were quite racy for a high schooler, and it's probably a good thing my mom didn't develop a love for the genre until much later. I'm sure she wouldn't have approved of her teen-aged daughter reading such spicy stories. Because the Harlequin American Line wasn't a 'behind closed doors' kind of read. No, ma'am. Everything was done right there in front of my young, impressionable eyes.
The more I read, the more I decided I wanted to write "one of those" someday. And, now, thanks to The Wild Rose Press, that dream has come true. In the past four years I've published three full length novels, a free read, and just signed a contract for a Christmas novella with them. I have another full-length in the works.
So why romance? Probably because it's been with me for all these years. It's in my blood. A part of me. In fact it was only probably in the past six or seven years that I've branched out and started to read other things along with romance. But no matter what, romance will always be first and foremost in my heart. I do so love the Happily Ever After.
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
Well, criminy. Sorry about the late post, some of you are probably in bed asleep already over there on the other side of the pond...gearing up for the big wedding?
ReplyDeleteMy computer at home is having troubles. Apparently IE9 doesn't like to post in Blogger, so I have to do it at school in the morning. Oops! Morning was quite a while ago...
I read the same books, but I think I stuck Sweet Valley High in there in between the Nancy Drew and the Harlequins. Love those books!
ReplyDelete(Still up here, Debra - and yes, waiting for the big event tomorrow!)
ReplyDeleteYour post made me realise that I started writing romance stories before I ever read any (apart from those in women's magazines). I can't really remember what books I read in my teens (apart from the Anne of Green Gables stories!). It was only when I was in my 20's that I discovered Mills and Boon (as it was here before it merged with HQN).
But agree with you that romance will be first and foremost to me too.
I read Nancy Drew. Definitely sensed repressed attraction. I rough-tuffed it with Science fiction. Love and relationships were solid in the best ones. Explict, often. HEA came along with saving the planetary system and disposing of the bad guys. I guess that's why I like sub-plots.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteRomance makes the world go round, but a little mystery murder here and there never goes amiss in a book. I like adventure, too. Historical pirate themes or soldiering heroes in the vein of Hornblower, hence I'm a great fan of the Sharpe series. I adored War & Peace, I loved Gone with the Wind, and after the normal children's classics I literally went ape on Daphne du Maurier novels, until I discovered Lady Chatterley's lover hidden at the back of a bookcase. Well, that was it, I was on a hunt for raunch novels and found them: the Anglelique series by Sergeanne Golon, who in fact were husband and wife Serge & Anne Golon.
best
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